shearing time!!

This post is quite late. The sheep were sheared last Spring, but I've been lazy busy remiss about writing.

The first step was to move them close to the back patio where the shearers set up shop. We no longer keep them in the electric pens during the day, but allow them free range in the large pastures, moving them from one to the other every month.

Little Red Riding Hood kept Cici occupied while Mamma Cherry was being sheared. 

I was coveting Cicic's wooly coat, but my Shepherdess made the executive decision to not shear her. She has since regretted the decision, after Cici's growth spurt this summer, enduring her heavy coat. But she'll warm through the winter, and we'll get an extra heavy bag of wool in the Spring.

Harmony hired two young women, who, after recently graduating from Texas A&M, started their own traveling sheering business. I was amazed at their strength and ability to get the job done.

dirty and matted under belly wool is not worth keeping

anyone who can handle ornery Banana has my respect 

The newly humiliated Banana

Mamma Cherry is next! 

The women made quick work of sheering three adult sheep, and Harmony was left with bags full of (apparently warm and cozy) wool to clean and card.

The sheeps' wool contains Lanolin, which allows rain to run off their wool and keep their skin dry. This lanolin, or "wool wax" has a wonderful smell to me, but I had no idea how distinct each animal's lanolin scent is until Mamma Cherry was sheared and our poor baby Cici could not longer distinguish her from the other two beasts! It was only when the sheep were sheared naked that we found out it wasn't the milk that a baby sheep could smell leading her to her mother, but her distinct lanolin smell. We were a bit torn between laughing and crying watching the toddler bump into our ram's side attempting to  get him to turn to allow her to nurse.

With lambing, and now shearing, we have successfully jumped two major- though routine- hurdles of owning sheep. I had a few doubts along the way, but now I think maybe our family is cut out for this farming thing after all. At least for now.